![]() | Feature: Physical Education
in Early Childhood | No.51 September 2007 |
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Abstract
Creativity is something we can find in every child, not just the gifted
or highly intelligent. Mayesky (1998) pointed out that one important goal
for the early childhood teacher is to provide an adequate base of knowledge
and skills for children, while at the same time providing an environment
that encourages creative thinking in the use of this knowledge and these
skills. According to Klein (1990), most learning takes place when young
children are actively engaged in experimenting, experiencing,\ and raising
their own questions and finding answers. Ennis (1987) stated that formulating
hypotheses, alternative ways of viewing a problem, questions, possible
solutions and plans for investigating something are creative acts that
come under the definition of creative thinking. Movement could be a powerful
tool to promote preschoolers’ creativity, taking into account that
movement during preschool age is the primary and dominant way of action,
expression, learning, communication and children’s overall development
(Gruber, 1986). According to Mayesky (1998), in creative movement, children
are free to express their own personalities in their own styles. They
do not have an example to follow or an adult to imitate. Creative movement
can occur in any situation where children feel free and want to move their
bodies. It can be done to poetry, music, rhythm or even silence. This
freedom to respond to various stimuli, which is basic to creative movement
experiences, engages the children’s imaginations and allows them
to be flexible, fluent and original. These children are engaged in their
own uniqueness. The purpose of our research, called ‘Creative PEC’,
was to design and implement a physical education curriculum intended to
develop young children’s creative thinking (finding respectively
many different motor solutions) and learning. The Creative PEC included
32 lessons and 365 preschoolers participated in its implementation. Quantitative
and qualitative data were collected before and after the implementation
phase. The results showed that children improved their creative fluency
and imagination and useful information was provided for children’s
behavior during their participation in the Creative PEC. What is creativity and creative thinking?
Creativity can be defined in very literal terms. The basic idea is that
any thinking or problem solving that involves the construction of new
meaning is creative (Brown, 1989). That may sound contrary to theories
of creativity, which emphasize originality and usefulness, but there is
no incompatibility if you keep in mind that a personal construction will
likely be original and useful to that one individual.
The definition of creativity as a construction of personal meaning is
also consistent with the notion that creativity is a kind of self-expression
and self-actualisation (Vernon, 1989). Each of these concepts emphasises
the individual, the self. Definitions of creativity, which have influenced
thinking in the past, include that developed by Torrance (1969), whose
thinking dominated psychometric approaches to creativity in the USA. Torrance
saw creativity broadly as the process of sensing a problem, searching
for possible solutions, drawing hypotheses, testing and evaluating, and
communicating the results to others. He added that the process includes
original ideas, a different point of view, breaking out of the mould,
recombining ideas or seeing new relationships among ideas.
Sternberg (2003) believed that the key-factors, which are important parts
of creative thinking, are the divergent thinking skills. Divergent thinking
is a kind of thinking that aims at producing many (not necessarily correct)
ideas, at coming up with a variety of unusual, original (but, again, not
necessarily workable) ideas, or even off-the-wall ideas, and to take an
idea and spin out elaborate variants of the idea (Baer, 1997). The main
dimensions of divergent thinking are:
Why creativity for young children?
Young children are known to be inquisitive, spontaneous and full of energy
(Doherty & Bailey, 2003). Curiosity is seen as a characteristic of
possibility thinkers and it is this ‘ability to wonder about the
world around them that leads to a possibility thinker to both find and
solve problems’ (Craft, 2000, p. 6). Tegano et al. (1991) made the
link between curiosity and creativity. Fromm (1959) emphatically expressed
the view that it is the children’s capability to wonder and their
capacity to be surprised and puzzled which makes their reaction a creative
one. He believed that the capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all
creation. Beetlestone (1998) also mentioned that children seemed to possess
an innate drive, which helps them to channel their curiosity toward finding
the most appropriate way of satisfying it. These are the developmental
characteristics that enable children to be able to think ‘out of
the box’ and come up with creative solutions.
Children aged between four and eight years old are said to be at a developmental
age in which they could travel easily between the worlds of fantasy or
pretend and reality (Mirus et al., 1993). It is believed that in pretending
to be a certain animal, for example a leopard, a child draws upon what
is known (from his or her own personal experience) and makes up what is
not. The resulting movement is often a mixture of reality and fantasy
when the child tries to be both imitative and imaginative. Tegano et al.
(1991) believed that children who engage in fantasy learn more about themselves
and their environment as well as acquire knowledge and develop creative
skills. They also believed that when children engage in fantasy they are
free from the influences of evaluation and are more likely to think of
unconventional ideas. Craft (2000) suggested that children who are highly
predisposed toward fantasy in their play are more likely to be imaginative
in their task situation. This predisposition toward fantasy may then contribute
to a child’s creative abilities. Teaching for creativity
Early educators have recognised the importance of creativity within recent
education policy and embraced the opportunity to provide for it, accepting
the fact that they are surrounded by creative, imaginative and inventive
people - children and adults. The report of All Our Futures (NACCCE, 1999)
endorses the importance of creativity in both teaching and learning, and
the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (QCA, 2000) recognises
Creative Development as a valid and important theme. One of its basic
principals is that children must be provided with chances to use their
knowledge, practice their abilities and continuously learn by promoting
searching, reasoning, critical thinking, decision-making and problem solving,
as well as chances to develop and express ideas and emotions in many different
ways.
Knowing that each child is born with creative potential and the ages
between 3 and 5 are thought to be the critical years for the development
of creativity (Schirrmacher, 1993; Fauth, 1990), early childhood professionals
have a tremendous opportunity to encourage creativity and foster those
personality traits that demonstrate creative potential. As Tegano et al.
(1991) mentioned, creativity is fostered according to how the curriculum
is presented to the child. The four key-elements, which Mayesky (1998)
drew attention to, and are structured and modified to provide opportunities
for creative thinking, are the followings:
Craft (2000), Edwards and Springate (1995), Mellou (1996), Tegano et
al. (1991) and Runco (1990) highlight the role of the teacher in providing
the optimum balance between structure and freedom of expression for young
children. It is argued that teachers and other early childhood workers
can encourage creativity by behaviors such as asking open-ended questions,
tolerating ambiguity, modeling creative thinking and behavior, encouraging
experimentation and persistence and praising children who provide unexpected
answers. It’s certainly obvious that creative teachers and creative
teaching are key components in fostering creativity in young children.
Researchers in physical education have begun to study students’
movement responses to specific teachers’ actions in order to provide
insight about designing and implementing instructional strategies that
facilitate students’ learning (Chen, 2000; Chen, W. & Cone,
T. 2003; McBride & Cleland, 1998, Rovegno, 2000). Concerning physical
education, many scholars believe that the ability of teachers to structure
the learning activities and experiences, to create optimum learning enivronments
and to interact with children, plays an important role in developing and
promoting childrens’ use of creative and critical thinking skills
(Buschner, 1990; McBride, 1991; McBride & Cleland, 1998; Schwager
& Labate, 1993).
Torrance (2001) stated a decalogue to train teachers to foster the creativity
in childhood, that is:
Physical education and creativity
As Torrance (1981) referred to, the kinesthetic modality is the most appropriate
modality for eliciting the creativity of most preschool children, since
skills in these modalities are most practiced at the preschool age. The
importance of movement at this developmental stage was also supported
by Capel (1986), whose opinion was that movement activities provide children
the ability to exercise and develop their inventiveness, creativity and
their spirit of adventure. Creative development and motor development
of preschool children are two interrelated procedures of their growth.
One procedure’s development affects the other and also one procedure
can be developed through the other (Vygotsky, 1981). A representative
result of these two developmental areas is motor creativity, which is
children’s effort to produce movements that represent answers to
motor stimuli or solutions to motor problems. Results of many research
studies have already proven that motor creativity is directly connected
with creative thinking (Cleland & Gallahue, 1993) and critical thinking
(McBride, 1991). According to Gardner (1993), kinaesthetic intelligence
entails the potential use of one’s whole body or parts of the body
(such as the hand or the mouth) to solve problems or fashion products
and to work skillfully with objects. Call (2003), in her discussion of
a bodily kinaesthetic child, talked about some of the characteristics.
These are body awareness, development of good motor skills, a good sense
of timing, the ability to create and repeat sequences of movement and
taking pleasure in repeating and improving a movement.
The connection between moving and thinking is a topic in recent bibliographies
(Athey, 1990; Carter, 1998). Movement gives young children kinaesthetic
feedback. This means that children link movement and learning through
their senses. Zaichkowsky, Zaichkowsky and Martinek (1980) expresssed
their thoughts that children learn more than just motor skills through
movement and play, such as skills to: a) learn to employ cognitive strategies,
b) understand themselves in psychological terms and c) learn how to interact
with other children. Young children’s experimentation through movement
exploration, guided discovery and creative problem solving, which are
the most popular and used teaching methods in early childhood, are commonly
accepted by scholars, researchers and preschool teachers (Davies, 2003;
Mayesky, 1998; Pica, 2000; Sanders, 2002). Furthermore, through those
teaching methods, critical thinking skills are empowered whilst children
make choices and decisions (Buschner, 1990; Kirchner, Cunningham, &
Warrel, 1970). To help teachers, Stork and Sanders (1999) compare effective
and less effective approaches in the preschool movement education environment.
The first step in their outlined guidance is the construction of physical
knowledge through experimentation and the effective approach for this
step is to present the activities with questions that extend children’s
creative thinking and with emphasis on skill practice and investigation.
An educational curriculum, and more specifically a physical education
program, that requires teacher’s imitation from children, is not
going to promote creative or critical thinking. However a program that
uses movement exploration, discovery, self-expression and problem solving
can provide children’s creative thinking skills (Zachopoulou et
al., 2006). Movement could be a powerful tool to promote preschoolers’
creativity taking into account that movement during preschool age is the
primary and dominant way of action, expression, learning, communication
and children’s overall development (Gruber, 1986). According to
Cleland (1994), children have the inherent ability not only to learn fundamental
movement patterns but also to control their movements and to express them
creatively through the performance of different fundamental movement patterns.
When children solve fundamental or divergent movement tasks in as many
different ways as possible, they must not only generate alternative ideas
(i.e., creative fluency) but also act on those ideas (i.e. creative flexibility)
using specific criteria to modify and change each movement pattern. Weikart
and Carlton (1995) included creativity in their ‘Education Through
Movement’ Program. Promoting creativity in the learner is intrinsic
to this program. Teachers are the facilitators as children explore, plan,
make choices, initiate ideas, lead their peers, work cooperatively and
solve problems. If creative movement is a regular part of the young child’s
curriculum, a number of objectives may be reached (Mayesky, 1998):
The research on teaching creativity through physical education activities
– The Creative Physical Education Curriculum (PEC) The purpose of our research was to design and implement a physical education
curriculum intended to develop young children’s creative thinking
(finding respectively many different motor solutions) and learning. The
proposed creative physical education curriculum (Creative PEC) provided
children with opportunities to develop their creative thinking through
the use of movement elements, motor skills and movement exploration.
Our research was based on the following phases:
365 children, aged 4 to 5 years, participated in the 12-week Creative
PEC.
The Creative PEC included 32 lessons, which were written by physical education
experts specifically for this study. These 32 lessons were based on four
goals:
The first goal, which referred to lessons 1 to 8, dealt with the modification
of a given movement to become more appropriate for a given condition,
through the understanding of: a) capabilities of body parts, and b) movement
elements (body awareness, space awareness and quality of movement). This
means that children should learn how to modify their movements using changes
of movement elements. Children were asked to move from one spot to another
answering teacher’s questions, like “Can you walk with as
many steps as you can or with as few steps as you can?”, or “Can
you walk as fast or as slow as you can?” Another activity used a
die that had different locomotion movements on each side, or children
were given the opportunity to pass through a high or a short tunnel, above
a narrow or a wide stream. There were also activities that encouraged
children to throw or roll a ball in various ways, depending on the distance,
size of the balls, size of the targets, etc.
The second goal, which referred to lessons 9 to 16, accentuated the:
a) use of body parts and of different objects in various ways, b) production
of many different movements as responses to a stimuli or as solutions
to a given problem, and c) production of innovative movements. Children
should learn how to take risks through the wording of their own phrases
and through the invention of their own games. Educators gave various stimuli
to children, such as to move through a hoop, to cross over a river, to
throw a ball, to move one, two or more specific parts of their bodies.
Other activities took children through a fantasy story and asked them
to express it with movements. The stories were related to the circle of
the water (water, water vapor, clouds, rain, and snow) or to the sea conditions
(calm sea, high or small waves).
Lessons 17 to 24 referred to the third goal. During these lessons children should have learned to comprehend the new possibilities in movement execution and be provided with chances based on the trust in their opinion and in their abilities. In addition, children were asked to recognise the relations among different concepts, using movement to experience the themes of the different teaching areas. These lessons involved having the children form straight or curved lines, shapes (circles, quadrangle, etc.) and letters with their bodies. The fourth goal, which referred to lessons 25 to 32, encourage children
to discriminate and determine a problem, to set questions, to combine,
synthesise and organise their ideas in order to produce a new movement,
and to make a decision for the selection of the most appropriate motor
response to a given situation. In these lessons, children are encouraged
to explore and identify similarities and differences, to compare quantitative
concepts, such as big-small, wide-narrow, long-short, and to interpret
and express an assigned role with movements. The results of Creative PEC research
Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and estimated before
and after the implementation of the Creative PEC. The results showed that
children improved their creative fluency and imagination and useful information
was provided for children’s behavior during their participation
in the Creative PEC.
Children who participated in our research were involved actively in the
physical education activities, finding and showing their ideas and solutions
to early educators’ questions. The kinds of questions, such as ‘Can
you show me different ways to throw” or “Can you run putting
your hands in different positions?’, placed children in a state
of inquiry, so the processes involved with seeking solutions were stimulated
and divergent thinking was activated. From an early age children encounter
problems that compel them to generate novel solutions. Creative problem
solutions may profit the capacity to separate the momentary attitude and
intimate affiliations to be able to generate more novel ideas (Suddendorf
& Fletcher-Flinn, 1999).
It has been suggested that the major tenets of creativity are: the ability
to see things in fresh ways, learning from past experience and relating
this to new situations, thinking along unorthodox lines and breaking barriers,
using non-traditional approaches to solving problems, going further than
the information given and creating something unique and original (Duffy,
1998). This procedure is parallel with the expression of children’s
imagination. The results of our research indicated a significant increase
not only for fluency, but also for imagination (the ability to create
mental pictures or ideas, a qualitative feature of creativity). Many activities
of the Creative PEC were designed to sample children’s’ ability
to imagine, fantasise and assume unaccustomed roles, asking children to
express stories with movements.
This research also revealed that the Creative PEC lead children to a
kind of independence, helping them to feel more free and be open in the
process of movement exploration and experimentation. The main core of
the activities of the Creative PEC was the search for new ideas and movements.
As Jones (1972) supported, children have the need for freedom in the selection
and execution of different movements. In the same way, it is obvious that
children have to acquire a feeling of self-control. Through creative movement,
children have the ability to express their feelings and their thoughts
and to act and communicate using their body. This expressiveness, through
the body, manifests itself more prevalently than speech. In this way,
many children are able to explore, through movement, experiences that
were not approachable to them through words.
According to Cleland (1994), indirect teaching styles, creative thinking
skills and critical thinking strategies are also useful and they could
significantly improve children’s ability to generate different movement
patterns. These strategies included asking questions, comparing and contrasting
solutions, evaluating solutions based on criteria provided by teacher
and analysing the quality of their movement responses. If teachers want
children to be able to employ creative thinking and critical thinking
skills, then they must teach them how to do this. The challenges and the
chances for motor skills and ideas discovery are a powerful motive for
voluntary participation of children and for cognitive activation, as long
as it is of immediate relevance to them. The experience of personal discovery
is a catalytic factor for deep and effective learning and enhances child’s
self-confidence. Perhaps the most important opportunity for a preschooler
who participated in the Creative PEC was being able to validate and develop
their creative ability. Preschoolers have a powerful curiosity and active
imaginations. Teachers can encourage and stretch these valuable tools
by giving them chances, through movement, to imagine, explore and discover.
Although the results of our research cannot be generalised to other early
childhood classrooms, it does demonstrate that the use of physical education
to teach creativity as a lens through which to view early childhood classrooms
can shed light on the role of the early childhood teacher in creating
a learning environment focused on children’s physical, cognitive
and social development. This is also the belief of many researchers (e.g.,
Runco et al., 1998; Saracho, 1986) who affirm that creativity is a complex
or syndrome, which emerges from cognitive, affective, social and physical
realms. The findings of the current research could have implications in
three areas: to deepen our understanding of creativity as an integral
part of early childhood curriculum; to expand the use of movement during
early years education; and to design in-service professional development
and teacher training programs in order to improve creative program implementation. Creative PEC: Examples of activities
Objective: Children learn to explore movement elements, like body awareness.
Activity 1. Some children of
the class form bridges and the rest move in the space representing specific
animals: fishes, monkeys, giraffes, elephants, snakes, etc. While the
animals move around the space, they have to pass under the bridges. The
bridges change their height according to the space of the animals. Objective: Children were able to identify different body parts and make
interesting connections
Activity 2. Children make pairs
and create ways of connection. The teacher gives a signal (percussion,
voice, clapping, music for example) and each pair changes its way of connection. Objective: Children activate their divergent thinking by producing new
movements
Activity 3. Children form small
groups and one child of each group holds a hoop. They place the hoop vertically
on the floor. The leader of each group shows one way to pass through the
hoop and the rest group copy its way. Every child should be a leader.
Activity 4. Children sit on the
floor and shape circles in small groups. One child throws the ball to
another child of the circle with a different way each time.
Activity 5. Children form pairs
and each pair has one ball. Teacher asks each pair to create various ways
to roll the ball from one to the other.
Activity 6. Water – Water
vapor – Rain – Snow
Children represent a quiet stream in a forest. Each child is a blob of water. Because of the hot weather, the blobs become water vapors and they form various shapes of clouds. Then, the clouds feel that the land wants for water, it thirsts, and the clouds turn to blobs of water falling on the land. The rain forms streams. And the whole water-circle starts its journey from the beginning. Children work in pairs to share their ideas and develop movement patterns.
Teachers help children to create new movement by asking questions or describe
pictures or images, such as: ‘Show me how the streams move, slowly or heavily. Show me more ways. Could you show me more ways without looking to the floor?’ ‘Show me different ways the water vapors rising. What would happen if it whiffs or if it storms?’ ‘Show me how you can create a huge cloud all together. How do clouds travel around the sky? Objective: Children are able to create more varied and interesting group
shapes.
Activity 7. Children join to
make groups of 5. One group represents the sun while going down and the
rest of the groups represent the night flowers. Each group finds a way
to form a night flower (they can use hoops, ribbons, etc.). The teacher
gives the signal hitting the tambourine. As the teacher develops a decrescendo
(a gradually decreased intensity) the sun goes down slowly and following
this, a crescendo (a gradually increased intensity) gives the signal to
the night flowers to bloom. During the daybreak, the sun comes up during
the crescendo, while the night flowers close down.
Teacher asks the children questions to help them creating more movements
and to come up with new ways of movement as a group: ‘Show me another
way to represent the night flower’, ‘Can you use a hoop to
represent the sun? Could you hold the hoop any other way?’.
Activity 8: Walk like…..
Teacher describes images, with or without details, giving the signals
for the production of new ways of walking.
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Child and Physical Activity. St Louis: Mosby-Davies. Contact
Evridiki Zachopoulou, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Alexandrio Technological Educational Institution of Thessaloniki Department of Early Childhood Care and Education Thessaloniki, Greece Email: ezachopo@bc.teithe.gr ![]() http://www.icsspe.org/portal/index.php?w=1&z=5 |